Alternate History in Star Trek Part 26: TOS Spinoffs of the Late Nineties

[Gary Oswald]

Discuss this article by @Thande here

 

[Thande]

It is hard to exaggerate just how much Star Trek media there was in the late 90s. I thought I had a vague idea of it before writing these articles, but I was unaware of half the comics, for a start. I was quite surprised to see how many parallels between the Abnett/Edgington Pike comics and Strange New Worlds there are, which makes me wonder if there genuinely was any influence or if the ideas are just the sort that will tend to crop up again.

Also thanks for adding the links Gary.

 

[RyanF]

It is hard to exaggerate just how much Star Trek media there was in the late 90s. I thought I had a vague idea of it before writing these articles, but I was unaware of half the comics, for a start. I was quite surprised to see how many parallels between the Abnett/Edgington Pike comics and Strange New Worlds there are, which makes me wonder if there genuinely was any influence or if the ideas are just the sort that will tend to crop up again.

Also thanks for adding the links Gary.

Not just Star Trek, of course, I've had similar thoughts about Star Wars during the same era. Doctor Who too seemed to have more media around when the program was off the telly during this period than it has since the return.

 

[Thande]

Not just Star Trek, of course, I've had similar thoughts about Star Wars during the same era. Doctor Who too seemed to have more media around when the program was off the telly during this period than it has since the return.

In those cases it does make sense when you think about it - the editorial mandate will be more relaxed when there isn't 'mainstream' content being produced for film and TV that it needs to fit with, so more gets written. It just seems counter-intuitive at first glance. To an extent the same is true of Star Trek, as we'll (eventually) see - the 24th century novels written in the 2000s period when everything was off the air (or only Enterprise's distant prequel) got a lot more ambitious and less restrained with what they did with the setting.

 

[RyanF]

In those cases it does make sense when you think about it - the editorial mandate will be more relaxed when there isn't 'mainstream' content being produced for film and TV that it needs to fit with, so more gets written. It just seems counter-intuitive at first glance. To an extent the same is true of Star Trek, as we'll (eventually) see - the 24th century novels written in the 2000s period when everything was off the air (or only Enterprise's distant prequel) got a lot more ambitious and less restrained with what they did with the setting.

But how much of that is down to them not being actively produced as opposed to all these novel, comic, video game spin-offs just being the norm for the era? When The Phantom Menace was released it, if anything, increased the amount of Star Wars media. Between that, the Star Trek stuff being produced whilst the 90s series were on the air, and I'd throw in the Alien/Predator media being produced whilst they were still (trying) to make films I think it's as much an indication of the era as the particular state of the franchise.

 

[Thande]

But how much of that is down to them not being actively produced as opposed to all these novel, comic, video game spin-offs just being the norm for the era? When The Phantom Menace was released it, if anything, increased the amount of Star Wars media. Between that, the Star Trek stuff being produced whilst the 90s series were on the air, and I'd throw in the Alien/Predator media being produced whilst they were still (trying) to make films I think it's as much an indication of the era as the particular state of the franchise.

True, to some extent it's a chicken and the egg scenario, but we've previously discussed plenty of non-SF franchises where there was a lot of spinoff and ancillary material being produced in the 90s, so you may be right.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Higher paperback and comic sales at the time? If a book will sell loads of copies, you pump out books

 

[RyanF]

Higher paperback and comic sales at the time? If a book will sell loads of copies, you pump out books

In turn begs the question of what caused the change and when. Was the why and the when both the GFC? Was it the need for cheaper business practices even before that? Or was it the way fans consumed the media different afterwards?

No, it was Miss Scarlet!

 

[Charles EP M.]

All a good question. Even with ebooks you don't have the same production. Possibly this is another sign of the ever-growing mass of STUFF to consume, money & time on two Trek books a month isn't spent on films, TV, comics, audio, games, streams, other books etc.

 

[Ciclavex]

I think that the rise of home video has a role to play in that, something which Star Trek as a franchise seriously helped to propagate in this country (as I may have mentioned before, my godmother has the whole original series of Star Trek on every home video format and I include Betamax and Laserdisc), in that it kept TV shows, films etc. more "alive" for the fandom than they were in earlier generations.

This I believe fed a hunger for more content, and with paperbacks and comic books probably cheaper to produce at that point than at any point prior in history, and a burgeoning group of fan creators perfectly willing to produce said content for the masses (in the case of Star Trek, the more mainstream authors emerging from out of the old zines), some of whom were already published authors elsewhere, created a perfect storm that led to the massive explosion in such material across all kinds of fandoms in the '90s, since companies were perfectly happy to slap their label on something and take the big cut when they went out to bookshops for sale.

It's not until a bit later, I think, that the proprietors really grasped just how much money can get in and they start properly curating and creating restrictions and contracting out with specifics rather than just taking all comers -- and so you see the trend fade - though obviously not die out - into the 21st century.

 

[OwenM]

I think that the rise of home video has a role to play in that, something which Star Trek as a franchise seriously helped to propagate in this country (as I may have mentioned before, my godmother has the whole original series of Star Trek on every home video format and I include Betamax and Laserdisc), in that it kept TV shows, films etc. more "alive" for the fandom than they were in earlier generations.

This I believe fed a hunger for more content, and with paperbacks and comic books probably cheaper to produce at that point than at any point prior in history, and a burgeoning group of fan creators perfectly willing to produce said content for the masses (in the case of Star Trek, the more mainstream authors emerging from out of the old zines), some of whom were already published authors elsewhere, created a perfect storm that led to the massive explosion in such material across all kinds of fandoms in the '90s, since companies were perfectly happy to slap their label on something and take the big cut when they went out to bookshops for sale.

It's not until a bit later, I think, that the proprietors really grasped just how much money can get in and they start properly curating and creating restrictions and contracting out with specifics rather than just taking all comers -- and so you see the trend fade - though obviously not die out - into the 21st century.

And perhaps also it's easier to get hold of fanfiction post-Internet so less demand.....